Something Strange
“Well, this is a bit of a problem.”
Ge-ek—
I’d ignored the passage on my right flank and pushed straight ahead, only to find—
“Another fork, right here.”
The tunnel split left and right. Worse, both sides showed trails of mud leading onward.
“So those things back there weren’t the end of it, huh..”
I’d assumed there was only one of them, but there were tracks everywhere I looked.
“Could the mud pits those things crawl out of not be limited to just the one cavern?”
If there were mud pits in areas I hadn’t explored yet, spitting out more mud men—
“You’re telling me there could be at least five more?”
For now, I stopped at the fork, snapped a photo, and posted to the gallery.
So I can tell both sides have been traveled by mud men, and there might be more of them. But thinking about how Yagwang-i showed up, I really do feel like I have to explore this direction. What do you all think looks like the better call?
“Yeah, that’s true.”
Still, on the off chance it might, I turned to Yagwang-i and spoke up.
“Do you remember which side you came from? If so, could you lead the way?”
Ge-ek—
It cried once, then stayed glued to my left arm without so much as a twitch.
“Well, obviously..”
I’d held out hope since it was a creature inside the Backrooms, but come to think of it, Yagwang-i was a creature I’d found in the cave—from outside the Backrooms, wasn’t it?
“Shall we head back, then.”
Either way, I left the fork behind and walked back toward the wall the mud men had smashed through.
It was a passage with absolutely nothing in it, so even after walking for a long while, it felt like I was treading the same stretch over and over.
Walking,
and walking,
only the same scenery repeating.
Even the long smear of mud trailing along the floor seemed, for some reason, to be repeating itself.
Could I actually be walking down some kind of infinite tunnel?
Had I noclipped again, into some other Backrooms—one of infinite passages, like the one in the cave?
And still I walked,
and walked and walked,
the same empty, wall-lined passage stretching on and on—
Just as the dread was piling up, the side passage the mud men had broken out of came into view.
“Thank god.”
I really thought I’d been trapped in a different Backrooms..
Well, I mean, I’m already in the Backrooms.
Ge-ek—
“Right. Having you here makes it a little better.”
The Backrooms. A space where going mad long ago would have been entirely understandable.
If not for the Backrooms Gallery.
If I had truly been left all alone.
Would I have survived this long?
Well, it’s all a pointless hypothetical anyway.
After all, haven’t I survived like this?
An expert in exploring the unknown.
If I say so myself, I’d better not back down now.
“Shall we?”
Ge-ek—
No telling what’s waiting up ahead.
Barak—
Stepping over the broken fragments of wall, I entered the side passage.
“Did they smash their way through all of this?”
Bagrak—
As I followed the trail, fragments kept crunching underfoot.
And looking at them, a thought struck me.
“They dug through rock-hard stone walls like these without even a pickaxe..?”
Their bodies, after all, were basically amorphous except for the head.
With limbs like that—and obviously no flashlight to carry—they tunneled out this whole long-looking passage with no tools at all..?
Or maybe they’d only broken through as far as the thin wall right at the front, the kind a flashlight could smash. Or—
“Something else broke through this much?”
Thoom-!
Grrooo—
Just then, with a massive rumble, the ground shook as if in an earthquake—no, the entire cavern space trembled together.
“This feeling, I know it..”
It was the same vibration and sound I’d felt when returning from the giant vertical vine passage to the cavern yesterday.
And the sound was louder from up ahead.
“A threat beyond the mud men..?”
Dangerous..
Gege-ek—
“Whoa!”
Scritch scritch scritch—
Yagwang-i scrambled up my arm, over my shoulder, and settled onto my back.
Hiding? Yagwang-i, the one with a back nearly as tough as steel?
Tududududududu—
From up ahead came the sound of something dragging itself along the floor toward me.
“Gulp..”
Swallowing dry at the tension of not knowing what was coming, I gripped the pickaxe in my right hand tight and readied myself.
Grurrrrrrr—
And what appeared before my eyes was—
“That is a straight-up monster!!”
A thing as big as a car—no, as big as a limousine.
Its hide was flayed off, muscle exposed, a long body raw and crimson, with nothing at the front but a single gaping maw.
Four arms, eerily like human hands, stretched out from either side of its body like fins, pressing against the walls and hauling its bulk forward.
KRAAAAACK—!
“There’s no way I can beat this thing!!”
Ge-ek—
“Time to run, right!?”
Grurrrrrrk—
Leaving the thing behind as it rowed itself across the floor with four arms, fast as oars, I bolted the other way.
KRAAAAAK—!
Drurrrrk—
Crack—
“The original passage!”
Through the side passage littered with stone fragments, back into the original tunnel!
KRAAACK—!
Grdddk—
“How far is it going to chase me..!?”
There was clearly nothing on its body but that mouth and those arms. How does it even know where I am..!?
Thoom-!
Behind me, as I sprinted toward the cavern, the thing burst out of the side passage and slammed into the far wall of the original tunnel.
KRAK—!!
Somehow, it looked angry.
“You did that one yourself, buddy!? That’s a hundred percent your own fault..!”
KAGGGK—!
It fixed its gaze on me and came crawling after me, grinding through solid rock like it was nothing..!
Tatatatak—
“There’s not much cavern left..!”
Even if I made it back to the cavern, no solution was coming to mind,
and to make matters worse, the sound of it closing in only grew nearer and nearer..!
And then, before my eyes—the oxygen tanks..
“This!?”
I heaved a single oxygen tank up with both arms, straining.
“This thing weighs about as much as a rice sack..!”
Spinning in place—once, twice, three times, four—
“Fly!”
Whooong—
The oxygen tank, hurled with all its centrifugal weight, slammed into the dead center of its maw with a satisfyingly heavy thud.
KRAK—gulp..
It swallowed it whole.
In that window, I heaved up another and spun it around.
“One more, going in!”
Whir whir whir—and shwoom.
KEH—gulp.
Timed perfectly to the moment it opened its mouth, the second one slid right in.
“Hnngh, hnngh.. just one more..!”
Sprinting all that way just to do heavy lifting on the spot.
KEH-EK—!
“Now!!”
One more—shwoot—
Gulp—
It swallowed the third oxygen tank as well.
Right away, I pulled one of the flashlights stolen by the mud men out of my bag.
Click.
I separated the battery from the flashlight.
“This is what pickaxes are for too!!”
Krak!
I drove the pickaxe into a point two-thirds of the way up the battery.
Immediately, a smell something like paint rose from the punctured battery.
KRAAAAA—!
It opened its mouth.
“With this..! Adios, amigo.”
Fweee—
I hurled the battery at the thing chasing me and sprinted for the cavern with everything I had.
“Get out of the blast radius!! Full retreat, then take cover!!”
Tatak-!
The instant I cleared the tunnel into the cavern and flung my body to the left—
krak, FWOOMP—
a small sound, and then—
FWOOOOM—
FWABABABABOOM-!!!!!!!!
With a chain of explosions, a massive shockwave slammed into me and sent me flying, and the last thing I knew was the impact of hitting some wall before everything went black.
..eh
...ek.
Ge-ek—
Ge-e-ek—
“Nnghh..!”
Where am I..
Ge-ek—
Before my eyes, a faintly glowing giant reptile—
“Glow dino..?”
Slick—
“Gonna eat—!”
Thwap—
A small shock hit my forehead, like a light smack.
“Ah.. Yagwang-i?”
Only now was my head starting to clear.
Apart from the faintly glowing Yagwang-i, everything around me was pitch dark.
“Is this the Cave Cavity..?”
Ge-ek—
Scritch scritch—
By the light of Yagwang-i climbing onto my hand, I found a flashlight wedged into a corner.
And the moment I clicked it on and swept the beam—
“Whoa..”
Everything had been flung far across the room, and the mud pit had been blasted almost entirely to one side, exposing the passage beneath it.
“Red Dead Edition..”
Whether it was the remains of that grotesque thing exploding, fresh red blood and pale flesh were strewn across every direction.
“Yagwang-i saved my life.”
Ge-ek—
Unlike that tough back, its belly was soft and squishy—if it hadn’t been pressed against my back absorbing the impact when I hit the wall, I might have been nothing but a red smear on the stone myself.
“Yagwang-i, what on earth are you..”
A creature that took all that cushioning and came out fine?
Is it even right to call this thing a creature?
Ge-ek—
Well, first things first.
“Time to post a survival report.”
I opened the gallery—which by now felt stranger not to check.